Boys lax: John Jay throttles Iona Prep after halftime and cruises to a win

Action during a boys lacrosse game with John Jay at Iona Prep in New Rochelle May 1, 2018. Video by Carucha L. Meuse / lohud.com
Carucha L. Meuse, cmeuse@lohud.com

NEW ROCHELLE – Even the offense plays defense.

The first half was a struggle, but everything changed Tuesday when John Jay dialed up the pressure. A string of Iona Prep turnovers led to eight unanswered goals by the Indians, who ultimately cruised to a 9-2 win.

Every second-half mistake by the Gaels proved costly.

“It’s a great feeling to know the defense played a big part in a win,” John Jay goalie Shahe Katchadurian said after making 11 saves. “Obviously, we’re not getting our names in the paper for scoring the goals, but we did our part and got the ball to the offense. Giving the offense chances is what our goal is.”

Clearing the ball was an issue. Turnovers were sapping energy on the first warm evening of the season.

The Indians (8-3) got on the board first when Charlie Horan lassoed a loose ball on the edge of the crease for a slam dunk goal. Liam Fairback shot from the hip in the opening minutes of the second to knot the score, and the Gaels (11-4) took a 2-1 lead when Chip Cameron found space inside and Herschel Halesworth found him.

“I think we came out a little flat,” said Indians attackman Bryce Ford, who scored three goals after the intermission. “We saw it coming in warm-ups. Our stick work was a little sloppy. We weren’t clicking and didn’t seem to know where to go with the ball and were doing a lot of one-on-one. There wasn’t a lot of that in the second half and most of the goals were assisted. We rode hard and got a lot of goals off that.”

Horan set up Sean Nolan a minute into the second half to knot the score. Dean Ford gave John Jay a 3-2 lead with a crank from 15 yards.

The next three goals came from Bryce Ford.

It was a 6-2 cushion at the end of three quarters and the Gaels could not solve a well-prepared defense.

“We’re starting three freshmen now because we have some injuries,” Iona Prep coach Rick Trizano said. “That adds to some of our problems. We’re having a hard time clearing the ball. When we face pressure, we’re panicking and that led to our third-quarter collapse.

“Our defense is really good. Our goalie is the best in the county. Offensively, we have to possess the ball. Our guys want to get to the cage, but we have to possess the ball.”

Nolan finished with three goals and one assist. The Indians are unbeaten when they score at least six goals.

“We work hard every day in practice on the defense, lots of mental reps, lots of physical reps,” Katchadurian said. “We work on lots of the little things that make our defense good. There aren’t many teams out there we think are better than us, but we definitely have things to improve on.”